Hubbard Chicken

This is a friend's recipe for dressed up chicken which the whole family enjoys and guests might be impressed as well.

Simple

Buy or cut up chicken into parts and skin them, counting enough pieces for each family member plus a few extras for the teenagers.

Lay in your favorite tribal cookware pan.  I use my stoneware bar pan usually.

In a food processor mix several slice of stale bread, a few tablespoons dried oregano, one onion quartered, surge for a few seconds till in a consistent crumbly blend.

Sprinkle mix overtop of chicken and bake at 375 degrees for around an hour depending on the meatiness of the chicken.  Nothing spells disaster like undercooked chicken right?   I tend to cook it till I see the bone showing......definitely done.  Bread crumb mix keeps skinless meat moist and yummy.

Creole stuff

How to cook with your family.......you beckon to your children and divide the ingredients between them for quick results.

M....start the rice cooker
MP.....cut up two green peppers....please
B......two small onions chopped and six stalks of celery
C.....chop up turkey kielbasa....all three packages

Put all that in a large pot also known as tribal cookware thanks to an old friend.

Cook that all for a bit then add two large cans of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
Three to four cans drained red beans
Stir

Add table spoon paprika
Cayenne pepper to taste
Two teaspoons thyme
Table spoon oregano
Three or four bay leaves

Simmer for as long as you have......with enough time to eat it before the next thing in life.
Serve over rice or mix in rice.

This is basically how cooking rolls in our house.

Beef stew for my sickos

Back when I was student teaching, which was um....quite awhile ago, my supervising teacher told me that beef stew was the cure all for colds etc.   Her beef stew was similar to my moms with one magical ingredient.   She put whole mushrooms in hers.   She called the shrooms nice surprises and so happily yummy it has to cure you.   So.....here is how I make it.

(Mine serves twentyish or more)

Beef stew

Three pounds cut up beef (venison works too)
1/2 cup flour
oil to cover the bottom of the stew pot
one large onion cut in small pieces
eight stalks of celery or one or two leeks.
As many carrots as you can bear to peel cut up in smallish pieces
Six to eight potatoes cut up
2 or 3 bay leaves
A can or two of beef broth, beef bone broth or bouillon cubes
Eight cups boiling water
Two quarts whole tomatoes


Simple instructions.   Dump flour in a smallish bowl and dump beef into flour and stir to cover.
You can add salt and pepper to the flour mix too if you wish or can remember.  

Saute onion nad celery/leeks in a large stock pot in oil.   Add beef and brown.   At the same time boil six to eight cups of water depending on your quantity of beef.    When beef is browned, pour boiling water over top.    Next add the rest of the vegetables.   I often times start peeling and chopping in between other afternoon responsibilities.   Home made whole tomatoes are the best and to me make the recipe, but store bought work.   Add store bought tomatoes first so they have time to cook and fall apart.   The longer it simmers, the better it is.  

Four or five days later.....or more

On Monday I put a cup of butter in my awesome Bosch mixer which takes up tons of space on my limited counter.   I thought that banana oatmeal bars sounded.....um....healthy?     It sounded like one of those things which well organized, conscientious mothers make for their children for breakfast.   Well, I didn't get to the rest of the ingredients jumping in the mixer till....Thursday.   How pathetic is that???!!!!    In the meantime, the counter has been missing the dish drying rack as there was no room, who knows what shape the butter really is in, and the other adults in the family have worked patiently around it and didn't ask any questions.    The inside of me knew that there was most likely a bit of 'better not ask' going on in their heads and today hopefully they will get to eat some of it.   The sad thing is that I misread the recipe and put in white sugar instead of brown.   Four days and I still don't get it right.  

I see examples of this all over the place around here.    The kids dutifully squished the tomatoes and made sauce on Monday.....it is definitely boiled down and ready to be canned but it hasn't happened yet.   Martin found copious beans on Tuesday and they are snapped and ready to be canned.   They are waiting too.  

I've run experiments with the kids.   There was a pile of someone's socks in the hallway upstairs years back and I decided to see if they would ever disappear.   Well, I think after six months I gave up and decided to just pick them up but it was interesting to walk by.   I did mention them several times.   Experiments like this are a recipe for my insanity and shouldn't be tried.  

I am not sure how to turn off that overwhelm feeling but will push along to do the next thing and hope for the best....today.

Cabbage dish tweaking

My dear 16 year old son tweaked the cabbage/sausage recipe and simply cut up potatoes and put them directly in the cabbage mix.   The longer it cooks with the vinegar and sugar, the yummier it is.   I can not believe that I actually volunteer to eat the leftovers of something made out of cabbage for my lunch!   I used to HATE cabbage.   I suppose that is what nine kids and knowing money doesn't grow on trees will do to a person.   Eat what you have.  

Yummy cabbage recipe

A farmer friend and I were discussing the mysteries of figuring out what is for dinner and she shared this recipe with me.   It is only what I can remember from the conversation and I put in cheap bratwurst instead of hot dogs. 

One head of cabbage shredded
one medium onion
bratwurst - I put in 20 cheap ones to feed 14 and had some leftovers.
2/3 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
salt and pepper to taste


Cook these down until at least limp - you can not overcook this.  Crockpot?

Serve over mashed potatoes.   Cook enough to feed your family.   Yum, yum.

Backwards again

I am figuring out it is easier to cook the evening meal earlier in the day so the stress is not on my head all afternoon.   Funny thing is though, that amount of work earlier did not make me any less tired now.   Cooking isn't that much work but remembering what I am doing must be work.   I'm glad it is over with so I can just sit here and chill and not feel the least bit guilty.   That was goal.....I think. 

Backwards planning

This is not a new idea but have started looking more closely at those things we have on hand in the pantry which were most likely purchased in the name of thrift and then not used up or were purchased for a recipe which was not used.   Yesterdays made up recipe was nachos to use up all the chips which were purchased over Christmas for the chips and salsa fan who isn't here now.    I took the stale chips, put them on the bottom of my large baking pan and cooked them for ten minutes while I browned ground beef, an onion, chili powder and cumin, a jar of salsa, and a few cans of black beans.    I put all of that on top of the chips in the onion and topped which some shredded Colby cheese.   The kids gobbled that right up.   Almost everything we eat I make up out of my head.   I will try to post recipe ideas as they come to mind.  

Ham bone soup invention

In the line of using up what we have on hand, I took the ham bone from the ham last weekend, added a large onion, approximately ten new potatoes chopped in bite size pieces, as many carrots as I could bear to peel and chop (I always peel store bought carrots.....I know you don't have to......), four stalks celery, and one winter squash steamed then scooped out and added to the soup.    Our neighbor could not stop raving about it so I figured I would share.    I never tackled adding spices as I was actually not home to eat this meal and needed to scoot out the door.  Moral of the story here?   Winter squash goes with everything.   Throw out your cook books and keep throwing stuff in.   How can it not work?????

Depression Era Cooking

We are exercising our creative muscle and simply looking around at what we have on hand in the pantry and then coming up with stuff to make out of it.   There have been some complaints about too many beans (Lol!) of any shape or form so today I am going to take the ham bone out of  the basement and make some potato soup out of it.   I should probably call it Colonist cooking as that is where we are in time in history.   A few kidlets will be sent out to hunt for potatoes.   Sounds like a plan.    We could also call it Economics, Health, Horticulture, Home Ec........desperation.......house keeping.......life.......

I am basically becoming more and more impressed by the lack of a need for cookbooks.    Experience in what works together just helps make the recipe out of my head.    It is the season to throw pumpkin in everything too so am remembering to just throw some in with each recipe.    No one knows the difference and it goes with almost everything.    Last night it jumped in our turkey pot pie, along with the leftover mashed potatoes and shazam!    Yum.    The more carrots the better too.   Perhaps it is orange vegetables which make this difference.   I laugh at recipes which call for 4 to 5 carrots.....um......why?????     Eat more orange stuff......

Poisonous Leftovers

What is it with leftovers that seems to turn my children's stomach?   THey can love and adore the fresh food  the evening before and then the next day will have nothing to do with it even when prodded to eat the same thing.    I have discovered the secret that mothers have searched high and low for, to get their children to eat the dreaded leftovers.     There are two parts to this secret.    The first part is to run out of bread, not make any or buy any, and then make no effort to remember it at the store.    What happens is they have to make something to eat.   But wait.....there is a second part to this relentless problem.   Even when we run out of bread, the kids will make themselves scrambled eggs instead.    Um.....no.....scrambled eggs, a dirty pan, eggs left on the counter and.....a refrigerator which is still the home of the poison.

So what is the secret?   I am sure you are dying to know.   I found the secret when I decided to make up a schedule for the kids which required them to each have a day to prepare lunch for everyone else.   What to do they asked themselves and me.    This is when it started to happen.   Each child, on their special day of lunch preparation, looked at me in disbelief when there was no bread.    I pointed out to them the meals which were already prepared for them and they discovered the amazing ease of heating them up and dishing them out.    There are far fewer leftovers now.   I am relieved.   The fridge is relieved and we spend less on bread.  

I know.....some of y'all do not have leftovers.   We do.   They are poison unless push comes to shove.   Now to just stick to my guns on this despite the BLT's we had the other night.   I personally am not a fan of sandwiches so the lack of bread is of no loss to me.   Evil mother......

Pakchoi

If your tummy doesn't like celery than Pakchoi is an awesome alternative and is also VERY easy to grow.   I grew some this summer and just ate the last of it.  It tastes better than celery too.  It is great in soups of all kinds and in Asian recipes.    I plan to plant some more but that depends on productivity status for my day.   I can dream.  My gardening went to pot the middle of August so now it is a weed mess.    I can still find peppers, potatoes and tomatoes.  

It is later in the day and..........I didn't get to plant the pakchoi.    Typical.   Maybe tomorrow?????

Eggplant

People grow these things but I rarely hear that anyone likes them. Tonight I used my Mark Bittman vegetarian cookbook (I am not a vegetarian) and made eggplant lasagna. It is looking pretty yummy. I personally grew an Italian version of eggplant which is looking pretty awesome. I'm on the hunt for recipes so feel free to share your sources.

Okra will be the next challenge. I personally love okra but the family is less than enthused. They grow like crazy so will have to figure out something soon.

That is all the excitement down on the ranch, which as usual is full of weeding and finally enjoying the benefits of all that weeding. Yay!